Raynham Giants Youth Football 2010 season preview (Part 1)

Michael Mancinelli

Wednesday

Aug 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMAug 25, 2010 at 2:13 PM

For the last week or so, Raynham’s own boys of fall have once again mobilized to prepare for the annual rite of passage synonymous with the start of a new school year, long weekend afternoons at the field, and even changing tree foliage colors – the youth football season.

For the last week or so, Raynham’s own boys of fall have once again mobilized to prepare for the annual rite of passage synonymous with the start of a new school year, long weekend afternoons at the field, and even changing tree foliage colors – the youth football season.

After a long, hot summer, the Raynham Giants kicked off the 2010 Old Colony Youth Football League season with the first official practices Friday August 13 and have since been hard at work fundamentally refining individual blocking and tackling skills while learning offensive plays and defensive schemes.

As each of the organization’s age and weight appropriate teams have come together, the expectations for the overall program couldn’t be any higher as the Giants should legitimately contend for OCYFL Division 3 Super Bowl titles at each level.

While last year the Giants’ Mites (eight to nine years old, 105 lb. max weight) and Pee-wees (10 and 11 years old, 130 lb. max weight) each wrapped up 10-0 campaigns with respective Super Bowl wins – marking the fifth straight Super Bowl title for Raynham’s Pee-wee team – the Midgets (12-14 years old, 160 lb. max weight) went 5-3 failing to make the playoffs on what head coach Mike Gallagher called a third-level tie-breaker after the bottom three teams in Raynham’s five-team Division 3 each finished 5-3 in the regular season including records against Division 4 opponents.

“Basically another team hadn’t been in a while so (it was a) they got to go type-deal, which didn’t seem fair to us because we were on the short end of the stick,” Gallagher said of how the Midget season concluded last year.

Although Raynham’s Midget team was relatively young last year with a host of seventh graders receiving significant playing time, that same group of athletes is obviously a year older, more experienced, and even bigger physically this year. So last season’s growing pains, endured in games like a 28-0 loss to Abington, a 45-8 loss to Rockland, and a 36-6 loss to Whitman, should pay dividends as prior experience for the Giants this fall.

“We had to play some younger guys, we had some seventh graders that were in there playing,” Gallagher said. “So we were a little younger than some other teams, a little smaller than some other teams, but for the most part we competed every week.

“We’re a week into camp and as a coaching staff I think we’re really happy with where we’re at. We definitely have things we need to work on, but we don’t have the holes we’ve had in the past where we’re shuffling around trying to fill them. I think we’re pretty solid.

“We told the kids the expectations for this team are very high. We’re expecting a Super Bowl championship. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t compete for that. That’s our goal and anything short of that will be a disappointment with the talent that we have on this team.”

Raynham’s talent was on display against Division 1 Plymouth South in a scrimmage Friday night. The Giants showed good size, athleticism and speed, not to mention a good amount of depth.

Defense appears to be the team’s immediate strength as Raynham will look to rebound from being outscored 147-124 last year, although with multiple offensive weapons, the Giants shouldn’t have problems scoring either.

Brandon Gallagher and Cameron Goodrich return to the backfield this year while Andrew Sargent and Matt Sheehan return to anchor the offensive line.

But Isaiah Bell and Andrew Noviello – two athletic offensive/defensive ends with near 6-foot frames who return to the program after one-year absences – look to significantly impact Raynham’s passing attack by providing matchup advantages downfield. Both had impressive catches in traffic against Plymouth defenders in Friday’s scrimmage in addition to blocking well.

Newcomer Blake Gallagher – a 160 lb. (max weight) sixth grader who joins brother Brandon under their head coach father Mike – will complement Raynham’s running attack as a powerful fullback and showed a tremendous stiff arm move in Friday’s scrimmage. Gallagher will also start on defense as a middle linebacker despite his age.

Defensively, first-year starters Connor Reid and Gavin Perry, both seventh graders, should help the Giants secondary as athletic cornerbacks.

Even with the Midget team’s talent, if it hopes to turn some heads this fall, it will have to do so against a very competitive Division 3, in which no team had a losing record last season, and against some talented Division 4 teams in the OCYFL – Massachusetts’ largest independent youth football league.

“We play Pembroke and Pembroke has had a weaker program for the past few years since joining the league, but recently (the town’s) Pop Warner program folded, so they had an influx of 200 boys. They’re a question mark. Who knows, they could be a powerhouse.”

While Raynham moved up to Division 3 from Division 4 last year due to the biannual revaluation of divisions based on school-age male population, the inception of new OCYFL rules allowing only Division 1 and 2 teams to face each other and only Division 3 and 4 teams to face each other in the regular season eliminated Raynham’s longstanding natural rivalry with neighboring Division 1 Bridgewater.

Nevertheless, the two towns continue the “B-R Classic” in the form of game-type scrimmages at each level with this season’s edition tentatively scheduled for September 2 at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High.

Raynham opens the season for real with a slate of games at Pembroke on September 12.

The Giants’ Midget team will look to start off an eight-game regular season in similar fashion to last year’s finish when Raynham had 14-0 and 28-0 wins over Hanson and Pembroke respectively to cap the season.

“We’re looking forward to having a good season and it should be a lot of fun to watch these kids.” Gallagher said.

Next week, The Call will preview Raynham’s Pee-wee and Mite teams and profile what the program aims to teach its athletes about life through football.

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